The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for tracking interactions with a shared link through a chain of forwarding.
Many times when a user encounters content of interest, the user may choose to forward the link to other users that he/she believes would also find the content of interest to them. The link, e.g., the uniform resource locator (URL), when it is forwarded, will be associated with the user forwarding the link. Thus, any metrics regarding interactions with the forwarded link will be associated with the user that forwarded the link. For example, if user A forwards a link to user B, user B's interaction with the link, e.g., a click-thru operation (i.e. a clicking of the link followed by navigation to the corresponding web site or content associated with the link), or the like, will be used as the basis for metrics collected for user A's forwarding of the link. However, if user B then forwards the link on to users C, D, and E, if any of these users perform an interaction with the link forward by user B, then the interactions by those users will be associated with the forwarding of the link by user B for purposes of generating metrics but will not be associated with user A.
This is especially true when users make use of URL shortening services to permit them to forward long URL links in social media environments for example. That is, because many social media environments put limits on the length of messages that may be transmitted, it sometimes becomes difficult to forward URL links of interest if the URL link has a length that takes up most of the allowed length of messages within the social environment. As a result, URL shortening services are utilized that, through various methods, shorten the URL to a much shorter length and store an association of the shortened URL with the original full length URL. When a user clicks on the shortened URL, the corresponding request for the content associated with the shortened URL is transmitted to the URL shortening services web site which correlates the shortened URL with the full length URL and then performs a redirect of the request to the content corresponding to the full length URL.
Often times, a user of a social media service may use a URL shortening service to generate a shortened URL that is forwarded to one or more other users via the social media service. The recipients of the shortened URL may themselves use a URL shortening service, either the same or a different one, to generate yet another shortened URL which may be forwarded along. Thus, once again, any interactions with the first shortened URL will be associated with the first user while interactions with the second shortened URL will be associated with the second user. Especially in social media environments, it is important to users to be able to track the impact of their social presence/activity. However, because of the disconnect between the shortened URLs, the social presence/activity corresponding to the original forwarded of the URL, i.e. the first user, may not be accurately reflected in metrics maintained for the user.